Vow to turn the sea of sand into an oasis

【First-line narration】

Narrator: Yin Yuzhen, a villager in Sarawusu Village, Wudinghe Town, Wushen Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

For more than 30 years, I have been busy with one thing, that is, planting trees and controlling sand! At first, I did it with my husband and me, and then I did it with the villagers. Slowly, the small saplings grew into a thick tree, and the sand sea finally became an oasis.

I remember 36 years ago, I married from my hometown in Shaanxi to the village of Sarawusu in the hinterland of the Maowusu Desert. As soon as I arrived at the door of the new door in the future, I was stunned: there was a "hidden" kiln in the desert that could not see my head, and the kiln was very short, and I had to cat waist to get in and out, and I could only accommodate two or three people. There were no people in the square for a few miles, and there was not a trace of green. At that time, I was resentful and afraid, and I really wanted to escape! But if he could escape, he wiped his tears day and night.

As soon as I settled down, the wind and sand came. The wind and sand here are two or three months, and when the wind is strong, the sand is covered with sand, the pot stove collapses, and the kiln is buried. When the wind and sand passed, we took the shovel to clear the sand from the inside out. That is really called heaven and earth!

But the days to come will be over. What to do? Think for yourself! I was born stubborn, and I had a thought in my heart that kept swirling around: "I'd rather plant trees and die of exhaustion than let the sand bully me to death!" "Unexpectedly, this idea eventually changed my life.

Once, when I went back to my mother's house, I was "hungry" by the green that I had not seen for a long time, so I brought back some saplings and carefully planted them near our kiln. Unexpectedly, a few plants actually survived!

If this desert were green, it would be nice. My husband and I gritted our teeth, exchanged the little money we had saved from part-time work for more than 600 saplings, and began to grope for trees in the desert. At the beginning, we thought, "One tree can live is one tree", as soon as we have time, we will plant, and when we are tired, we will lie on the sand for a while, rest and then continue to dry. But often it was just planted, and after a while, a gust of wind and sand came and buried the small saplings. I must be anxious! It can only be "planted and buried, buried and buried." In the end, more than 10 saplings survived and slowly grew taller. Where is the ordinary sapling, it is simply a cluster of small flames, which jumps in my heart and is called a joy!

Since then, nothing has stopped me from planting trees.

If there is a sad thing, there are also - when I was pregnant with my first child, I bent over the saplings all day long, and the force was too great, and the child miscarried. The second pregnancy, also because she was busy planting trees, the child was born prematurely. Fortunately, later the children grew up, and the forest also became larger. I often stand next to the forest, listening to the sound of the wind blowing leaves, and feel that the forest in front of me is like my child, and it has long been inseparable from me.

Year after year, I have more experience planting trees. For example, I learned which trees needed the least amount of water and which had the strongest vitality, and learned to figure out which tree was most suitable to plant based on the landform, wind direction, climate and desert size. With experience, things will be smoother and the effect will get better and better: in the past 30 years, hundreds of thousands of poplar trees, sand willows, poplar firewood, and purple locusts have taken root in the desert, and more than 70,000 acres of desert have become oases. There are more trees, the environment is better, the village is rich, and the villagers have planted wheat and fruit trees, and opened up a large rose garden. Many people have tricycles, motorcycles, agricultural vehicles and even cars at home, and the green water and green mountains have really been exchanged for the golden mountains and silver mountains!

As the days are rich, we also have a new direction: we have set up a company specializing in sand control and afforestation, providing experience in sand control and greening to places where they are needed. On this road, our family is not alone, the government, enterprises, fellow villagers, strange well-meaning people, and many foreigners have given me a lot of help, and I have been touched again and again.

Without further ado, keep doing it and turn more sand seas into oases!

Project team: Guangming Daily reporters Li Xiao, Gao Ping, Wan Majia, Wang Jianhong, Li Xiaodong, Wang Simin Guangming Daily correspondents Gao Yuan and Mei Gui

Guangming Daily ( 2021.11.03.07 edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily